But in the front offices, things were not serene. Not that monotony
ever set in seriously in the engineering department, but that sacred
sanctum of all-things-that-didn't-behave-as-they-should found that even
their usual turmoil was worse. There was nothing that a person could
set his fingers on directly. It was more of a quiet, undercover nature.
On Monday Burbank sent around a communiqué removing the option of free
messages for the personnel. On Tuesday he remanded the years-long
custom of permitting the supply ships to carry, free, packages from
friends at home. On Wednesday, Francis Burbank decided that there
should be a curfew on the one and only beer emporium. "Curfew" was a
revision made after he found that complete curtailing of all alcoholic
beverages might easily lead to a more moral problem; there being
little enough to do with one's spare time. On Thursday, he set up a
stiff-necked staff of censors for the moving picture house. On Friday,
he put a tax on cigarettes and candy. On Saturday, he installed time
clocks in all the laboratories and professional offices, where previous
to his coming, men had come for work a half hour late and worked an
hour overtime at night.
On Sunday--
Don Channing stormed into the Director's office with a scowl on his
face.
"Look," he said, "for years we have felt that any man, woman, or
child that was willing to come out here was worth all the freedom and
consideration that we could give them. What about this damned tax on
cigarettes? And candy? And who told you to stop our folks from telling
their folks that they are still in good health? And why stop them from
sending packages of candy, cake, mementoes, clothing, soap, mosquito
dope, liquor, or anything else? And did you ever think that a curfew
is something that can be applied only when time is one and the same
for all? On Venus Equilateral, Mr. Burbank, six o'clock in the evening
is two hours after dinner for one group, two hours after going to work
for the second group, and mid-sleep for the third. Then this matter of
cutting all love scenes, drinking, female vampires, banditry, bedroom
items, murders, and sweater girls out of the movies? We are a selected
group and well prepared to take care of our morality. Any man or woman
going offside would be heaved out quick. Why, after years of personal
freedom, do we find ourselves under the authority of a veritable
dictatorship?"
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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